I'm Stuart Watson, an investigative reporter working in local TV news.
I learned of the D-Word Community from a group of filmmakers who were
producing a documentary about our television newsroom for PBS.

I am an independent writer/producer from Iowa. Past work has included
corporate, training, marketing, educational and some local public
television work. I am now focusing my career on environmental
education and documentary. Iowa is not a great place to be for this
kind of work. I am lacking a "community" of independent/documentary
producers. Therefore, I look forward to checking in regularly with
the d-word community, to network and learn from you all.

I think I will have to be a lurker for quite a while. I'm an aged dude who has decided to follow his youngest son who has almost completed a New Zealand BA in film and video. Ben's major video was taking an ordinary actor and using real stunt men to make him into a stuntman! (nearly killed the poor bugger). New Zealand is awash with stuntmen and women as we've had Zena and Hercules productions here for years (even I"ve been an extra in both) and more recently Lord of the Ring. I'd like to hear your opinion of Peter Jackson's epic if you wish to post as us Kiwis are enormously proud of his efforts and I would like to keep him buoyed up as he moves to the last two parts of the triolgy.

OK, in a few weeks time I will start my BA in Film, Television and Media Studies at the University of Auckland which should take three years to complete. For your interest, the films we analyse in the first year are "Gladiator" (well it was only the third time a New Zealander had won an Acadamy Award), "Grease", "The Castle" (a quirky Australian film about a dysfunctional family resisting losing their home to an airport extension), "Inside John Malcovich" (a neat film I thought as I'm an SF buff), "Secrets and Lies", "the Price of Milk" (a NZ film which has proved strangely popular, especially in the USA).

I have worked for a zillion years in journalism and public relations (some of the latter, dare I say, multinational). I have made corporate films and videos. One I scripted on introducing the concept of employee shareholding to thousands of employees was put forward by the production company to an Australian version of Bafta and missed out by one point on the top prize. I used a gifted Maori actor as presentor who did not possess a suit until I bought one for him.

Since then I have done the high-tech stuff using laptop-controlled presentations (try coping with it when the idiot presenting it departs from the script).

Ah well...."by the scars on their backs you shall know them." Hopefully I can contribute a little bit to my classes as well as learning heaps in the next three years. What to do with it? Not really sure but maybe producer-screenwriter.

PS. If you enjoy Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" see if you can rent an earlier film "Heavenly Creatures" that he made. This was about two Christchurch 16-year-olds who conspired to kill the mother of one. It was cause celebre at the time with juvenile lesbian overtones, secret diaries, adultery involving senior English academics let alone Mum's grisly end on the end of a frequently wielded brick in a local park in broad-daylight.

In those days I was 18-years-old and a trainee journalist for the morning paper, "The Press". I had to run hand-written copy to Post Office telegraphists to send to several London papers such was their interest in the salacious aspects of the case.

In between hopping on my bike for the sprint to the Post Office (we took life seriously in those days) I would stand at attention alongside the pressbox. As the youngest person the court, Parker, the dark-haired defendent, decided to relieve her boredom by smiling and winking at me. Hulme, the other, ignored me. I was terrified that the slightest response on my part would end up with contempt of court proceedings and losing my job!

Anyway my stocism worked, after both girls serving around 6 years, Parker joined a nunnery; and Hulme, back in England, became a successful mystery writer under another name and was only exposed a few years ago as being involved in a murder herself. I felt sorry for her. I guess, at 66, I am probably the only person left alive who was at her trial.

Anyway Kai I think might know me from other posts in history and political subjects. I look forward to learning from this group. Are there good sources to access film criticism?

Welcome to The D-Word Forum, John, and thanks for the lengthy and
interesting post. For some reason it didn't wrap around, so to help
everyone read it, I'm re-postinig it with word wrap (which you might
want to check off in your Settings). I admire your courage in going
after the BA and wish you well. Please check back in with us from
time to time and let us know how it's going.

[JOHN WROTE:] I think I will have to be a lurker for quite a while.
I'm an aged dude who has decided to follow his youngest son who has
almost completed a New Zealand BA in film and video. Ben's major video
was taking an ordinary actor and using real stunt men to make him into
a stuntman! (nearly killed the poor bugger). New Zealand is awash with
stuntmen and women as we've had Zena and Hercules productions here for
years (even I"ve been an extra in both) and more recently Lord of the
Ring. I'd like to hear your opinion of Peter Jackson's epic if you
wish to post as us Kiwis are enormously proud of his efforts and I
would like to keep him buoyed up as he moves to the last two parts of
the triolgy.

OK, in a few weeks time I will start my BA in Film, Television and
Media Studies at the University of Auckland which should take three
years to complete. For your interest, the films we analyse in the
first year are "Gladiator" (well it was only the third time a New
Zealander had won an Acadamy Award), "Grease", "The Castle" (a quirky
Australian film about a dysfunctional family resisting losing their
home to an airport extension), "Inside John Malcovich" (a neat film I
thought as I'm an SF buff), "Secrets and Lies", "the Price of Milk" (a
NZ film which has proved strangely popular, especially in the USA). I
have worked for a zillion years in journalism and public relations
(some of the latter, dare I say, multinational). I have made corporate
films and videos. One I scripted on introducing the concept of
employee shareholding to thousands of employees was put forward by the
production company to an Australian version of Bafta and missed out by
one point on the top prize. I used a gifted Maori actor as presentor
who did not possess a suit until I bought one for him.

Since then I have done the high-tech stuff using laptop-controlled
presentations (try coping with it when the idiot presenting it departs
from the script).

Ah well...."by the scars on their backs you shall know them."
Hopefully I can contribute a little bit to my classes as well as
learning heaps in the next three years. What to do with it? Not really
sure but maybe producer-screenwriter.

PS. If you enjoy Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" see if you can
rent an earlier film "Heavenly Creatures" that he made. This was about
two Christchurch 16-year-olds who conspired to kill the mother of one.
It was cause celebre at the time with juvenile lesbian overtones,
secret diaries, adultery involving senior English academics let alone
Mum's grisly end on the end of a frequently wielded brick in a local
park in broad-daylight. In those days I was 18-years-old and a trainee
journalist for the morning paper, "The Press". I had to run
hand-written copy to Post Office telegraphists to send to several
London papers such was their interest in the salacious aspects of the
case. In between hopping on my bike for the sprint to the Post Office
(we took life seriously in those days) I would stand at attention
alongside the pressbox. As the youngest person the court, Parker, the
dark-haired defendent, decided to relieve her boredom by smiling and
winking at me. Hulme, the other, ignored me. I was terrified that the
slightest response on my part would end up with contempt of court
proceedings and losing my job!

Anyway my stocism worked, after both girls serving around 6 years,
Parker joined a nunnery; and Hulme, back in England, became a
successful mystery writer under another name and was only exposed a
few years ago as being involved in a murder herself. I felt sorry for
her. I guess, at 66, I am probably the only person left alive who was
at her trial.

Anyway Kai I think might know me from other posts in history and
political subjects. I look forward to learning from this group. Are
there good sources to access film criticism?

My name is Dawn and I'm an independent documentary producer/director
from Minnesota. Looking to find out more about this community as
Minnesota tends to have none for documentarians (that I'm aware of,
unless they're just hiding). Just completed a film called "Treading
Water" on the GLBT communities of rural northeastern Minnesota and am
in post-production on "THIS Obedience" a film on the ordination of Rev.
Anita C. Hill, an openly lesbian minister in the Lutheran church. Our
website is www.aquariesmedia.com if you want to see other pieces about
me or my partner in filmmaking, Jamie. Would love to learn about
fundraising and distribution, as we have the filmmaking part down.
Just don't know exactly how to get these things funded and shown. I
guess that's it for now. I look forward to figuring out this online
community thang, as my web knowledge is not terribly interactive.

Sahand here, young writer/translator weaseling his way into
film/documentary. I've been lurking around since Ben introduced me to
the forum at the Amsterdam Doc Fest, not allowing myself to post
until I finished shooting my first short (dance) film last night. If
it's any good I'll get it streaming on a server somewhere (and post a
link ofcourse), if not, I'll hide in a cave somewhere. Expect a
plethora of questions from yours truly as soon as I feel somewhat
confident in my role as a starting mockumentarist.

Let it be known I do not shy away from shameless self-promotion;
I am a young Dutch-Iranian alloy, combined for greater strenght,
active in the fields of literature and film. My only published work
(so far) is a collection of Bukowski translations in Farsi. We have
just finished shooting my directing debut; a 1.45 minutes dance-
short. It will undoubtedly have many shortcomings, but the experience
will help me to realise some of my other film plans.

A great deal of my creative juices is reserved for 'Lion-Heart' a
docu-drama Iranian style playing in Baluchistan, an Iranian province
bordering with Pakistan. At the Rotterdam Film Festival next month
you will find me making a fool of myself trying to impress rich
producers.

Being a child of neither one world or the other, I get excited when I
see the cultural continents move towards and away from each other,
creating gaps and friction. I see beautiful things being created on
the borders, and it is this energy I wish to tap into, this line I
wish to walk.

Recently my creative soul has been demanding of me to focus my
attention towards the people of Afghanistan. I would like to engage
in dialogue with some of the creative minds of Afghanistan, in- and
outside the country.

Hi Folks.
I'm a transplanted American living in British Columbia. For the
past ten years, I've been president of Across Borders Media,
which produces documentaries mainly for Candian networks.
I'm looking to "cross the borders" more these days, pitching my
projects to American broadcasters as well.

Also, for the past four years, I've hosted a conference called
Media that Matters, which brings together people from all facets
of socially - consicous media in a beautiful wilderness setting to
cross-polloinate and have deeper conversations what we convey
to the world.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this posting so please
excuse me if I'm in the wrong place.

I am hoping someone out there could help me find an old
version for Mac of Photoshop 4.0. Does anyone know where I
could acquire this version of the program? We have an older
AVID that can only take this version.

Hi. I'm Bill Kavanagh and I'm a documentary-maker living in
Manhattan. Have field produced a documentary about the civil
war in El Salvador, "Enemies of War," working with Esther
Cassidy. I'm currently posting a documentary about three
families whose lives are changed by a struggle in one city for fair
housing--working title "Brick by Brick." There is a website for this
work-in-progress, at www.brick-by-brick.com.

Hi everybody.
I'm Rob, and on my business card it says I'm a documentary
producer. This is because, until recently, I produced cable docs
and magazine stories for Towers Productions in Chicago. I have
recently gone freelance and moved to New York in the middle of
a recession. That's why my business card doesn't say "career
counselor."
I've done programs for The Food Network, A&E, The History
Channel, MSNBC, and The Weather Channel (yes, The Weather
Channel does programs). I even scored a doc for a friend (and
d-word member).
I've also compiled a rather long list of "next projects," which, if I
can ever free myself from the cycle of wage slavery, I'll start on.

I'm really happy to find this forum. Maybe one of you can
explainto me the difference between "self-employed" and
"unemployed."

By the way, found out the hard way that the diffence between
self-employed & unemployed is how much money you have in the bank to
support yourself... But if you ever go for unemployement, NEVER tell
them you're self-employed!!!